Styx couldn’t keep her caged in the cave, protected from the horrors and dangers of the outside environment. But he’d meant it when he’d said he’d be by her side whenever she ventured out. She was his mate, his equal, but he also would make sure she was never harmed.
They sat by the fire, him on one side, and her on the other, but the heat that filled the cave had nothing to do with the flames between them, and everything to do with the arousal moving back and forth. He smelled Audrey’s desire, knew she was wet for him, primed. She was also at the peak of her fertility.
He couldn’t help that male side of him, the part that came from his species, the part of him that wanted to press her to the ground, mount her, and fill her with his cum. But this wasn’t just about putting his babies inside of her, but about showing her that he cared for her. This wasn’t just a biological need in him, but about Styx wanting to make sure Audrey felt just as good as he would, and that she knew she was his equal and not his property.
“You’re different with me, I’ve noticed,” she finally said after long moments of comfortable silence. “Although I guess I wouldn’t know since I’ve never seen you interact with anything but these monstrous creatures. But compared to the men I’ve come in contact with recently … yeah, you’re different, and not in a bad way.”
He didn’t answer right away, but then ran his hand over his face, feeling the stubble along his cheeks. He was different with her, he knew it, and saw it in himself. But he wanted her to know that when it came to anyone else he wouldn’t hesitate to slit throats and watch them bleed out.
“Make no mistake, my female, I am far from the gentle man you may be accustomed to.”
She glanced down at the ground, not speaking right away. “I’m not accustomed to men that would be called gentle.” She swallowed and lifted her head to stare at him, her nervousness saturating the air around them. “My family was killed. I was taken from my home and sold into sexual slavery. Maybe it was luck, or fate, or whatever, but I was able to escape. That’s how you found me.”
The very thought of someone touching her, a male thinking they could have her, had this blind rage filling him. Styx wanted to hunt out those males and kill them, make them see that taking what wasn’t theirs was the wrong fucking move.
“I would gladly kill them ten times over just to make them see that thinking they could have you was the worst mistake they ever made.” There was a moment of silence, but he wanted her to fully understand. The air heated, and he scented the shift in her, the fact that her arousal grew the longer she stared at him. But Styx was in a constant state of lust where Audrey was concerned. She stepped toward him.
“I don’t want to fight you, Styx.” She looked at him with wide eyes, the sweet scent of her desire filling his head and making him intoxicated from it. “I don’t want to fight this.”
His cock jerked behind his leathers again, and he knew he had to sample this female, his mate. He rose and walked toward her, smelling her lust rise and feeling his body become tighter, ready to finally claim his wife.
“When I first saw you, something in me awoke. You were hurt, but there for the taking. I wanted to protect you, to make you happy from that moment on, even though I hadn’t even spoken to you, or even seen the color of your eyes.” He inhaled deeply again, taking her scent, her essence into his body. “I knew you would be mine, would carry my young, and so I had to have you.”
He crouched in front of her, both of them only inches away now, breathing the same air, experiencing the same electricity and arousal.
“The moment I saw you I knew you were mine, Audrey.” He smoothed his finger over her bottom lip, and he felt her tremble. He stared right in her eyes and continued to speak. “There wasn’t anyone or anything that would stop me from what I wanted, and what I wanted was you. What I want until the end of time is you, Audrey.”
She didn’t speak.
“Are you still frightened of me?”
She shook her head.
“Does what I say frighten you, how I want you as mine?” He could scent her emotions, but he wanted her to verbally answer him. The truth was, before Audrey, Styx hadn’t cared about what a female felt. Maybe it was because he hadn’t found his mate, that one female that would forever shape him, change him.